


a quick pace

by nikospyrr



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: 96line, platonic, sorry to sixth graders if that offends you, theyre sixth graders what even is love to sixth graders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 10:11:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9486692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikospyrr/pseuds/nikospyrr
Summary: it's the last day of the annual sixth grade olympics and soonyoung is wearing mismatched socks, jihoon thinks that everyone has cooties, junhui has to use his inhaler for laughing too hard at soonyoung's socks, and wonwoo has long legs.





	

on the day of the annual sixth grade class olympics, kwon soonyoung ran to school wearing a bright green ankle sock on his left foot and a black and white striped knee high on his right. why did he have such eccentric socks?! where did his mom put the other half of his eccentric socks!? junhui was going to laugh at him, and he finds everything funny, which means he'd probably laugh even harder than usual and fall to the ground. jihoon would probably tease him forever, which is how long junior high lasts, according to jeonghan. If soonyoung learnt anything from when his older friends visited in the fall, it was that junior high was terrible and that soonyoung should savor his last year in elementary school while he still can.

true to his predictions, junhui did collapse on the ground in laughter. in fact, he laughed so hard that he started wheezing and gasping for air. minghao, a fifth grader, had to run into the classrooms and grab junhui’s inhaler for him, effectively halting his plans of participating in the final race around the dirt track. after junhui had assured the both of them that he would be fine jihoon couldn't keep a relieved grin off his face, and maybe it was just soonyoung but it seemed like he smiled even more when junhui was designated to sit on the bench besides him.

"do you like junhui?" soonyoung whispered urgently, after casually dragging jihoon towards the classrooms and away from the field.

jihoon pushed him off. "shut up, soonyoung! liking people is gross; everybody has cooties." he responded, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

"so why were you smiling so much?"

"because junnie is the runner for class b! that means that you might win the race!" jihoon's idea set off sparklers and confetti in soonyoung's mind. he could practically hear the cheering of his classmates as he crossed the finish line, and he watched in delight as park sooyoung—a tall girl from class c, who hated him ever since he mistakenly thought her name was soonyoung and yelled in her face about it perhaps a bit over enthusiastically—frowned and crossed her arms in anger. "soonyoung!" jihoon snapped his fingers, and soonyoung returned to earth with a brand new purpose.

"i'm gonna win the race!" he yelled excitedly, and ran off to tell the rest of their class. their teacher, ms. tiffany (who was the coolest of all the teachers and let the students call her by her first name), wasn't entirely pleased that soonyoung was delighting in junhui’s pain, but she still smiled brightly and wished soonyoung good luck.

—

by the time the final race came around, soonyoung had told everyone he knew he was the first place winner, so much so that some people actually thought that the race was already over and went home. he took his place at the starting line and kissed his two mismatched socks as best he could—maybe he’d make it a habit of wearing mismatched socks.

"runners, get ready! get set! race!" the whistle blew and the three runners were off. it was three laps around the oval track, and soonyoung was already keeping a steady lead in front of his competitors. from class c, there was choi youngjae lagging behind, but only because he liked to wave at his friends as he passed by them—and he had many friends in the sixth grade class. in between the two of them was jeon wonwoo, who had replaced junhui for the race. soonyoung didn't know too much about him, except that he sometimes brought banana milk for class b, which made junhui jump around him and jihoon while holding his milk carton (soonyoung liked those days because sometimes junhui would drop the banana milk on accident). wonwoo was tall for his age, and his long legs made up for his slow but steady pace. no matter, soonyoung thought. he was in the lead and he wasn’t even trying his hardest! although, admitting that to himself made him feel like a bad sport, so he picked up the pace.

one lap cleared. soonyoung waved to the cheering crowd, and smiled brightly at the signs that his class made for him. he saw a poster that read, “your socks don’t match, but you'll win this match!” as he ran past, and he threw his head back in laughter. this was a bad idea. he stumbled, and as he struggled to regain his pacing he looked behind him to see just how much his lead had diminished.

jeon wonwoo no farther than two meters behind. when did he get so close? they locked eyes then, and soonyoung could’ve sworn that wonwoo smirked evilly at him. he put more power into his legs, and silently cursed the funny, albeit well meaning sign his friends had made.

second lap cleared. soonyoung willed his legs to move faster; he would be getting the confetti and sparklers this time! the red finishing ribbon was at the far end of the track, in the middle of the final curve. just beyond it he could see that youngjae had stopped running and was wrapped in a big group hug from his friends in class c.

and suddenly loping into his field of vision was jeon wonwoo. in an unforgettable moment, soonyoung could only watch as wonwoo sped faster and further away from him, and closer to the finishing ribbon.

class b was raucous and loud as they swarmed around wonwoo. soonyoung ran until the curved edge of the track met the grass and he fell face forward, defeated. he hoped no one stepped on him as they rushed to see the winner. he heard his classmates pass by him, quietly telling him that he did a good job. “I’ll grab you some popsicles, soonie.” jihoon said, ruffling soonyoung’s sweaty hair as he followed their classmates to the free ice popsicles stand.

after a minute of breathing in dirt particles and cursing jeon wonwoo, soonyoung figured that doing either action would be unproductive and dangerous, so he turned his head to rest his cheek on the ground instead. he was surprised to see junhui, crouching in front his prone form with a weird sort of grimace on his face, like he couldn’t decide on being happy for his class or being sad for soonyoung. besides him was jeon wonwoo, cheeks pink and his glasses just a tad foggy. he held out a hand to soonyoung.

“that was a fun race, soonyoung. your socks are really cool.”

reminding himself that having bad thoughts about jeon wonwoo would be futile and also make his mother unhappy with him, soonyoung let wonwoo help him sit upright, just as jihoon appeared holding three ice popsicles. he gave two to soonyoung and the other to wonwoo, then pulled another out of his sweater pocket for himself.

“my cool socks didn’t help me win the race, though.” soonyoung pouted, holding the popsicles to his cheek to combat the red he knew had taken residence.

“soonyoung, do you know what’s worse than losing a race? being by yourself after it.” wonwoo adjusted himself so that he sitting with his legs crossed, then took off his glasses to wipe off the condensation. “it socks to be lonely.” he said casually, looking up at soonyoung with an impish smile.

while soonyoung roared with laughter— even clapping his hands in delight—junhui groaned and covered his face with his hands. “you promised that you wouldn’t make a pun if i introduced you!”

jihoon couldn’t help but scoff. “that’s what you call introducing?! crouching in silence in front of soonyoung for two minutes is introducing?!” he was smiling as he said this, his lips dyed blue from the raspberry popsicle.

soonyoung looked at his two best friends’ bickering with a wide grin, and caught wonwoo’s eyes again. there wasn’t a trace of evil, just clear and bright mirth at the chain reaction he had caused. maybe this wonwoo kid wasn’t so bad.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you lots to sandy (aka ao3 user ebulience) for inviting me to a word sprint, and subsequently inspiring this strange little fic because i couldn't think of anything else besides running. 
> 
> also thank you to chips (you know who you are) (also i can't remember your ao3 account) (or if u have one at all) for thinking up the pun for the sign that makes soonyoung trip.
> 
> and finally thanks to you, dear reader, for taking time out of your busy day to read this! it means a lot ; ;


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